poliphilo: (corinium)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2014-01-11 09:50 am

Travelling Home By Way Of Leamington Spa

My mother gave us a Marks and Spencer's gift card for Christmas and we decided we'd stop on our way home and spend it. What we did was drive until we felt hungry- by which time it was Warwickshire- then  left the motorway,  asked Sally Satnav to find us the nearest store and she took us to the centre of Leamington Spa. Leamington is a beautiful town- mostly built at the beginning of the 19th century- which was absolutely the greatest era for English domestic architecture- classical but neither slavish nor bombastic, with everything proportioned just so.  We stayed there once when we were doing something Shakespeare-related in nearby Stratford- and we've promised ourselves we'll repeat the experience.

The Parade, Leamington Spa

It's nice to be home- and not to have an alarm clock set. I woke at seven, turned over and slept for another three quarters of an hour. It's very quiet here in town; you don't have the traffic noises you have in the country.
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[identity profile] glitzfrau.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 10:15 am (UTC)(link)
It's very quiet here in town; you don't have the traffic noises you have in the country.

Hah! What a neat observation. This is what I always think when I stay in the country, too. Deafened rustics cling to their fiction of bucolic peace and quiet, but we know better.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 10:29 am (UTC)(link)
My mother lives close to the A21- the London to Hastings road. You can't see it, but it roars day and night.

[identity profile] lblanchard.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 01:38 pm (UTC)(link)
What is that thing in the sky? It looks like a chandelier caught in a spider's web.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 02:09 pm (UTC)(link)
You're not far wrong. It's part of the town's Christmas decorations.

[identity profile] resonant.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought at first that it was an extremely fancy streetlight.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
In a way I suppose it is...

[identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Christmas chandeliers in the street lighting have been popular here on this side of the pond for a while now. Seville has a few as well.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I think they're rather elegant.

[identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
They are!
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[identity profile] heleninwales.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
My Dad now lives in Leamington Spa since he moved to a residential care home. I would have been there this weekend visiting him if I hadn't developed this stinking cold. :(

It looks a very pleasant place from Google street view, though I've only ever passed through it on the train up to now.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I only know the town centre- which I'd say was one of the handsomest in Britain.

[identity profile] porsupah.livejournal.com 2014-01-11 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Not entirely sure I'd concur with the latter observation. =:) But then, the locality seems replete with.. enthusiastic drivers, who seek to impress people with quite how long they can maintain a low gear after ascending the hill, all the way to the special angels who overtake buses pulling out - best was a few weeks ago, where they suddenly had to cast the anchor on seeing another car approach. No impact, thankfully, but a bit of smoke and a couple feet between distress.

I used to enjoy visiting M&S, but knowing they use the abhorrent workfare scheme has killed any such pleasure. I do hope they reconsider such an ill-advised position.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-12 08:56 am (UTC)(link)
We don't usually go to M & S. The prices are far too rich for us.

Workfare is foul.

[identity profile] davesmusictank.livejournal.com 2014-01-12 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I use to live just twelve miles away in Rugby , well actually born there so i often visited this quaint little town.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-01-12 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I went to conferences in Rugby on a couple of occasions.